Down the Rabbit Hole
by Leanex
Summary: Child of the dreamers, take my hand. And I will take you away to a place filled with wonder, in which we can share our dreams and live in peace.
1. Prologue: Down the Rabbit Hole

In a child's eyes, the world is a place filled with magic. A place of no fear, but of possibilities unscathed by the darkness of human cruelty. The complexities of their simple dreams goes deeper than any human minds can comprehend. They are so powerful that sometimes they can morph into their own piece of reality, and where do these pieces go you ask? Well to the land of the possible impossibilities of course! A land where what you think cannot be chained and bound by the suppression of criticism and abuse. A land of wonder that, like a puzzle, can only be put together by the strongest of imaginations.

_Child of the dreamers_

_So beautiful is your mind_

_So pure is your soul_

_That nothing can brake you_

_Nothing can shake you_

_Nothing can make you tremble_

_With your thoughts you are so nimble_

_Weaving a reality all your own_

_Making your mind into a place you call home_

_In which you wish to live forever_

_I can grant your one wish_

_Take my hand_

_Give me your trust_

_And I will take you away_

_To a place filled with wonder_

_A wonderland_

_In which we can share our dreams_

_And live in peace ~Yuki_

* * *

**EDIT:**

**Forgot to do this.**

**Disclaimer: I obviously do not own Kingdom Hearts or Alice in Wonderland. I simply own this story.**

**Warnings: Swearing, guyxguy, possible character death (I wouldn't worry to much about that one if I were you) and possible smut in later chapters, I've yet to decide.**

**This new story is going to be Akuroku and it's basically my interpretation of Alice in Wonderland just with Kingdom Hearts characters. This was requested by one of the most awesome girls I've ever met. Her username is Yukisaintclare, do go give her stuff a read. This quote and poem up there were written by her and she asked me to put it at the beginning for her. I really love you girl, you're the best :) Well, I bid you farewell! Tata for now my dears!**


	2. Dried Up Pool of Tears

Roxas Strife. He wasn't exactly your typical seventeen year old boy, nor was he the typical quiet child. He was a dreamer, something he had picked up from his father at a very young age. He had always adored his father. Most people made Roxas feel like he was bazar and that he didn't belong. But whenever Roxas had been around his father he didn't feel so weird. He felt like he finally belonged somewhere. And then came that one terrible day. The day when he felt like his life had ended.

The day his father died.

It had been a rainy day, as most were in England. But the rain had been coming down especially hard that day. It was dark out as his father was riding home in a cab, working a bit later at the museum than he normally would have. With the combination of the rain and the dark of the night, it had been quite hard for the cab driver to see. So when the driver saw a pair of headlights headed straight for him he quickly tried to swerve out of the way. The sudden movement caused the cab to slide on the slick, wet road and soon enough, the cab driver no longer had control over the vehicle. The car flipped when it hit a bump then slid into a building. His father had been wearing his seat belt, unlike the cabbie, but even so he didn't keep his life. His skull had been bashed against the window several times until it finally shattered against the strength of the blows. There was a lot of blood pouring from his head and pieces of glass stuck in the flesh. He didn't stay alive for very long after the ambulance had brought him to the hospital. Only long enough for his wife and son to come and say goodbye. The doctors had told them that even if he had survived he would have suffered from severe brain damage. But that had been the thing that killed him in the end. Roxas had been eight that day.

After his father's death, it had only taken two weeks before his mother decided she couldn't cope with her husband's death and taking care of her child by herself. So to suppress her pain she'd started doing drugs. At first it had just been a bit of weed twice a week then it became every day. Soon enough she started coming home with new drugs like cocaine and crystal meth. She'd even started to invite other people over the house to do drugs with.

Roxas had become very quiet after that day, and for a while he took to staying in his room, reading books and day dreaming about the impossible things that his father had always spoke with him of. On most nights, when Roxas would wake up, he'd go running to his father to speak with him of his dream, then his father would comfort him and sit on his bed with him till he'd fallen asleep. He no longer had that option, especially since his mother would just tell him it was a dream and to go back to bed. It had taken a year and a half for him to get used to not having his father there to calm him at night.

When Roxas was thirteen his mother completely stopped picking him up after school, saying he was old enough to walk home alone and that she had other things to do. Roxas knew that she just wanted to stay home and do drugs all day. So Roxas started going to his father's grave everyday after school. He'd stay there till sun down, telling his father about his day at school or his dreams he woke up from every night. His mother never noticed his long absence through out the days, simply believing he'd been at school the entire time.

Since he hung out in the cemetery so often, most kids started to assume he was a goth and would avoid him. However, even some of the goths avoided him, writing him off as weird because he'd sit and day dream through out school then go and talk to his father's grave. It didn't matter how weird anyone else was, no one thought that normal. So Roxas was left with out friends. He didn't mind though. He preferred to be left alone. Other people just liked to interrupt his day dreams and question them. After all, he was rather honest and straight forward (another one of his traits that made people dislike him) whenever someone would ask what he was thinking about.

Over the years all his habits just got worse and he seemed rude to most because he was so blunt, he just became the odd man out in school. He spent more and more time at his father's grave, by fifteen he was even spending spending his entire weekends there. His mother was so far gone in her drug addiction that she never even noticed he was gone, and honestly, he wondered how she even kept her job, it's not like it was anything special though. She just made pizza's. That was his dinner every day unless he decided to cook something.

Roxas had always wanted to run away though. To just leave his mother behind and have a little adventure in his life.

Was that too much to ask for?

He didn't think so. But for some reason he felt like he couldn't leave. There was this nagging feeling in the back of his head that told him to stay. He didn't know what it was. But for some reason, unbeknownst to him, he listened to the nagging.

Until, finally, one day the adventure found him.

* * *

Roxas sat at his father's grave, his back resting against the large stone as he read a book in peace. It was quite cloudy that day, leaving the day rather dark and Roxas with the suspicion that it was going to rain rather hard that day. He didn't mind the rain so much, he just hated when it interrupted his visits with his father.

But as stated before, he was reading peacefully until he spotted something in the corner of his eye. He saw long, white, fluffy ears sticking up behind a small gathering of dead leaves then quickly disappear. Roxas raised a brow curiously and tilted his head slightly to the side.

_Was that a rabbit?_

He put his book down by the grave stone and got up to go find the small creature. He took slow steps and looked around curiously with every step, trying to find the rabbit. Suddenly he saw a flash of white two grave stones away. It hopped behind the stones and scurried down the row of graves. Roxas was quick to follow the rabbit, running past the graves and straight into the forest beside the grave yard.

It was harder to follow the rabbit in the forest, but some how he managed. He could've sworn the thing stopped and waited for him at one point though. But he knew he probably imagined it.

He finally caught up to the rabbit though, but it jumped down a rather large hole in front of a tree. Roxas came to a sudden stop in front of the hole, losing his balance for a moment but quickly regaining it. He got on his knees, peering down into the hole in hopes of seeing the rabbit. As the wind suddenly picked up Roxas lost his balance once more. Though he couldn't recover this time as he suddenly fell forward and tumbled down the large hole with a startled scream.

It barely registered in his mind as he quickly passed a floating book case, a large grandfather clock and a piano among many other random objects. He suddenly hit a large bed, but was quickly thrown off by the force that he hit it with bouncing back. He continued to fall down the strangely large hole until, finally, he hit the hard ground with a sharp gasp.

With a loud moan he slowly sat up and rubbed the back of his head.

"Damn that hurt." Roxas mumbled to himself. He slowly cracked open his eye to look around him. He was in a large circular room with doors all around, dimly lit by two large candles standing on either side of each door. He blinked in confusion as he looked around the room. Where the hell was he?

Slowly clambering off the ground, he walked in a small circle around the room. Each door varied in size, some rather large and others oddly small. Though the door that caught his eye was the smallest door in the room. It appeared to be just big enough for a small dog.

"Drink the potion." A deep voice echoed through the room. Roxas quickly spun around in a circle and looked around the room. There was no one there, so where had the voice come from?

"Drink. The. Potion." It repeated, this time a bit more sternly. Roxas furrowed his brows in confusion and looked up at the ceiling.

"What potion?" He asked, slightly irritated that he couldn't see the person.

"The one on the table." The voice said as if it were the most obvious thing in the world.

"What tab-" Roxas turned and found a small table now sitting in the middle of the room. "-le?" He finished.

His eyes widened and he cautiously made his way over to the table and atop the smooth wooden surface sat a small bottle filled with clear green liquid. Tied around the rim of the bottle was a small tag with the words "drink me" written in nice calligraphy. He picked up the bottle and looked over it for a moment before he removed the lid and took a cautious sip of the green liquid. He scrunched up his nose at the taste of the bazar liquid then his body started to tingle as he watched the room grow in size around him. Wait... Was he shrinking?

He looked around the room curiously for a moment before he realized that he had indeed shrunk, though his clothes had not. He was also now the perfect size for that really small door.

He quickly made his way over to the door, forgetting his lack of clothes for a moment, and tried to turn the doorknob, but he quickly found it was locked. He huffed and stomped his foot on the floor in irritation.

"Tsk tsk tsk. You forgot the key my dear boy." The voice said.

"There wasn't a key!" Roxas yelled in irritation. A light chuckle resounded through out the room.

"Ah temper temper love. There is a key, beside the bottle. You just didn't look for it." Roxas growled and glared at nothing in particular. He couldn't believe this was happening to him.

He stomped his way back over to the table. He jumped up, trying to grab the edge but failing horribly. He kicked at the ground to work out some of his frustration but ended up kicking a small box and causing it to skid and flip on it's side. He looked over to the small box curiously. The lid was open and sprawled out on the lid and floor were large cookies in the shapes of hearts, diamonds, clubs and spades. He picked up one of the cookies and looked it over. It had yellow frosting on the top and in green frosting was written "eat me".

Roxas slowly took a small bite from the cookie and his body started to tingle again, though this time the room started to shrink around him as he grew.

"Shit!" He hissed, cringing as his head hit the ceiling and he had to crouch down to fit in the room. He looked down at the small wooden table and spotted a small metal key. He picked up the key in one hand and the green potion in the other. He took another sip of the odd tasting liquid, it wasn't as bad when you knew what to expect, but it was still pretty gross.

He slowly shrank back down, the key growing in his hand while the bottle grew too large for him to hold and he dropped it on the floor, the liquid spilling out as the bottle fell on it's side. He paid no mind to it though as he rushed over to the small, or rather normal, sized door. He pushed the key into the lock and heard a resounding click as it unlocked. Another light chuckle floated about the room.

"Well done. You may now enter." The mysterious voice said and the door swung open. Roxas's jaw dropped as he looked through the door. Before him was a large expanse of dried up dirt and way off in the distance he could see the green and browns of a large forest.

"What is this place?" He quietly asked himself.

"We call it the country of Hearts." The voice from before said right behind him. Roxas jumped and spun around, coming face to face with a grinning blonde. The man wore a nice, kind of long, dark blue suit jacket with a golden vest and white button up shirt with black dress pants and leather shoes. He had white fluffy rabbit ears atop his head and bright blue eyes. He started to pull off the blue jacket then handed it over to Roxas.

"Ello love." He said happily. Roxas gave the man an odd questioning look as he took the offered jacket and wrapped it around his bare body.

"Where the hell did you come from?"

"I was right behind the door there love. I was told to help you get through the door." He said, pointing at the door as he pulled out a pocket watch to look at the time. "Now, if you will excuse me, I really must be on my way. I am rather late for a meeting."

With that, the blonde strolled right past Roxas.

"W-wait! Just a minute please." Roxas said quickly, turning around to face the man again. The blonde stopped mid stride and turned on his heel, crossing his arms across his chest.

"Make it fast love."

"Who are you? And what is this place?" Roxas gestured to the desert surrounding them.

"I am Luxord, the white rabbit and this exact area here," He paused to gesture around them. "is the sea of dried up tears. Now I really must be on my way, if you wish to know more you must find the hatter."

And with that said, the blonde bounded across the desert and into the forest, leaving a very confused Roxas to stand there and watch him slowly disappear. Roxas was beyond confused. He was just flabbergasted by the events that just took place.

The sea of dried up tears? The country of Hearts? What the hell was that? And who the hell was this hatter he was supposed to find? How was he supposed to help him?

With a sigh, Roxas ran a hand through his hair then began his long trek across the desert. It's not like he was gonna get anywhere just standing there right?

* * *

**And so ends chapter one. I do hope you have enjoyed this update. Much love and thanks to all who review favorite and or follow. I really appreciate it guys! I'll see you all next chapter! Goodnight, good morning, good afternoon and good evening! **


	3. The Caucus Race and A Not So Long Tale

Roxas was still walking through the desert, slowly getting closer to the forest. He'd probably only been walking for about a half hour or so, but with the immense heat and utter dryness of the forest, it felt like he'd been walking for hours. He wasn't used to this kind of weather, hot sunny days were quite the rarity in England after all. So when he saw a rather large man sitting atop a boulder with small animals walking in a circle around the boulder you could imagine why Roxas would believe this was a mirage. As he got closer though he found that they did not vanish. He furrowed his brows in confusion as he watched the small animals tiredly stumble around the boulder and the man held his hands up to a small fire. He couldn't figure out for the life of him why in this heat the man would even need a fire. Especially with those clothes. He was wearing black dress pants and shoes with a white button up and nice purple pirate jacket with gold trimming. His hair was long and black, done in dreadlocks and he wore a dark brown captain's hat that sat crooked on his head.

"Excuse me sir, might I ask what you're doing?" Roxas asked politely as he approached the boulder. The man looked up in surprise upon hearing the blonde's voice, but then quickly lowered his head once more. His thick brows pinched together and his frown deepened.

"We are having a caucus race." The man said. His voice was deep and hoarse, as though he hadn't used it in a very long time. Roxas frowned at this and raised his brow in confusion.

"What for?" The man raised his head slightly and looked at Roxas from beneath his eyelashes.

"To see who will dry up the fastest."

Roxas was beyond confused. They all appeared to be completely dry, so why were they continuing to race? And in this heat, it simply made no sense.

"But you all appear to be dry, so why are you still racing?" The man sighed and shook his head.

"No you stupid boy, we are not racing till our bodies have dried, we are racing till they have dried up. As in dying." The man spoke as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. At the mere mention of death all the animals groaned in agony.

"What is the point of that?" Roxas asked with wide, shocked eyes.

"There is no point to it. It is our punishment for defying the queen."

"What could you have possibly done to deserve such a punishment?" The man sneered at this question and turned away from the boy.

"That is no business of yours. We're just lucky we didn't lose our heads." All the animals and the man gulped at this and rubbed their necks.

"Well why don't you just run away or something?"

"You think we're morons? It is magic that keeps us in this place and magic that keeps their legs moving just as it keeps this fire alive. This is our curse and punishment chosen by the queen. A slow and torturous death. Now begone! I don't wish to speak with you any longer!" And with that the man turned his gaze back upon the fire, refusing to acknowledge Roxas when he tried to get his attention.

"Well would you at least tell me where I can find this hatter person?" The man looked up at this, but not at Roxas. He looked to the forest.

"Go through the forest and there you will find, a tea party, the only one of it's kind."

"What on earth does that mean?" Roxas asked, but the man had gone back to ignoring him by now.

With an irritated huff and a stomp of his foot Roxas walked away from the man and the animals, mumbling about "stupid riddles" and profanities. He soon arrived at the edge of the forest. He gazed up at the tall trees. They were much taller than he had expected and all the leaves gathered on the branches made the forest much darker than most. He was quite wary about entering the large forest. There was no telling what was hiding within the shadows of such a place, and he wasn't too keen on finding out. Though if he wanted to find this supposed hatter he had no choice. So with a deep breath he squared his shoulders and marched into the forest.

At first it was quite difficult to see where he was going. He'd tripped over several roots stubbed his toes on three rocks and even ran into a tree. Finally when he fell over a log he noticed that more light was beginning to filter through the leaves as they thinned out a bit. He looked around at his surroundings for a moment then got off the ground with a sigh. He had no clue where he was, but at least now he could see. He continued his walk through the forest, though he hadn't gotten very far before he heard a twig snap from behind him. Roxas jumped at the noise and quickly spun around, but there was no one there.

"Sora you dolt! We were supposed to be sneaking!" A voice said to his left from behind a tree.

"Who's there?" Roxas asked as he began to cautiously walk over to the tree.

"I was being sneaky! That twig came out of no where, honest!" Another voice said to his right. He glanced over to the tree there, but continued moving toward the tree on the left.

"Whatever. Don't do it again and were gonna have to play a penalty game." Roxas raised a brow at this. What on earth was a penalty game?

"Aww, I don't like your games! They hurt!" The voice whinnied. Roxas finally made his way over to the tree and looked behind the large trunk, but there was nothing there. He was sure he'd heard the voice come from behind there. But if he wasn't there, then where was he?

He felt a tap on his shoulder and he jumped, quickly turning to face the person. A boy with black spiky hair and yellow eyes stood there, smirking cockily at the blonde. The boy wore a short sleeved light yellow shirt with an orange vest. His shorts had wide white and orange horizontal stripes and he had red high top sneakers with white socks bunched at the tops.

"Who the hell are you?" Roxas asked, looking oddly at the other boy. As he went to answer though, he was interrupted by the other voice.

"He's Vanitas Dum! And I'm Sora Dee!" A boy said as he jumped out from behind a tree onto the raven haired boy, who scowled at this action. His hair was a chocolate brown and he had bright blue eyes that were reminiscent of the sky. He was dressed just like the other boy but his shirt was orange and his vest yellow.

"Sora don't lie!" Vanitas said, hitting the brunette on the head.

"Ow!" Sora whinnied as he rubbed the top of his head.

"I'm Vanitas _Dee _and he's Sora _Dum. _We're brothers." Vanitas clarified, glaring at his twin.

"No you're not!"

"Yes I am Sora!"

This continued for a couple minutes before Roxas lost his patience.

"That's enough! I don't care who's Dee and who's Dum! I just want to know where the hell you came from!" Roxas yelled. The two stared at him in shock for a moment before Sora spoke up again.

"Oh, why didn't you just say so!" He said cheerfully.

_Because you didn't give me a chance to! _Roxas thought bitterly as he looked at the two boys in annoyance.

"Well, we've been following you since you entered the forest!" He said, as if it were completely normal. Vanitas hand instantly met his face after that statement.

"You've been stalking me?!"

"Tut tut tut. Not stalking. Following." Sora corrected.

"There's not really much of a difference between the two, Sora." Vanitas said in exasperation.

"Yes there is!" Sora argued, but Vanitas decided to ignore him and continue on with the explanation. Roxas was grateful for this.

"Look, we just wanted to know what you were doing. Plus, it was kind of funny watching you stumble through the forest like a blind man." Roxas narrowed his eyes at Vanitas. He was no longer grateful.

"So what _are_ you doing?" Sora asked curiously.

"I'm trying to find this hatter person." Roxas explained.

"Oh! We know where he is! We can lead you to him!" Sora grabbed him by the arm and started to drag him off into the forest.

"Sora I didn't agree to this!" Vanitas yelled as he hurried to follow them.

"You don't need to agree. I'm perfectly capable of leading him to the hatter on my own if you don't want to come along. Besides, I go to see the hatter much more often than you do, I know the way better." Sora said, turning his head to stick his tongue out at the other boy.

"Sora, I told you not to go there without me! I don't like you around that guy!"

"Oh you just want me to stay with you so you can play more penalty games."

"What's a penalty game?" Roxas asked, breaking the conversation between the two boys.

"Why do you ask?" Sora asked, raising a brow to the blonde.

"Curiosity."

"Curiosity killed the oysters you know." He said matter-of-factly. Roxas's brows furrowed in confusion.

"Isn't the saying 'curiosity killed the cat'?" Roxas asked.

"Is it? Well, either way it did kill the oysters. Would you like to know the story?" Roxas shrugged.

"I gue-"

"You don't want to hear it." Vanitas interrupted as he suddenly appeared next to Roxas.

"Why not?" Sora and Roxas asked in unison. Though Sora's came out with a bit more of a whine.

"Because it's a boring, long story about how this fat walrus eats a bunch of baby oysters. And his human friend gets pissed and starts chasing after him to beat the shit out of him. There, that's the story. I just saved you ten minutes of your life." Vanitas said.

"Aww you ruined the story!" Sora said with a pout.

"Thank God I did."

As they continued to walk, Roxas noticed that the trees were starting to thin out a bit and die. The sky was cloudy here and there was a thin layer of fog covering the ground. It reminded Roxas of home and all the cloudy days he'd spent outside by his father's grave. On some of the trees were random signs pointing in different directions some with words painted on that Roxas didn't understand and others saying "this way" "that way" "up" and "down". He couldn't help but think of how bazar the signs were. One of the arrow signs even had an arrow painted on it in the other direction.

Sora suddenly stopped as they reached a fork in the road, looking between the two roads for a moment. He finally turned to face Roxas and Vanitas with a slight pout to his lips and a light blush on his face.

"I have no clue where I am." Sora stated bluntly. Roxas sighed in exasperation as Vanitas face palmed again.

"I thought you knew where you were going!" Vanitas yelled, hitting the boy on the head.

"I did know where I was going, but I don't remember ever going through this place to get to the hatter!" Sora said, rubbing at his new found wound.

"Come on you moron, it's this way." Vanitas said as he moved to go down the right path.

"But I get this feeling it's this way." Sora said, pointing to the left.

"You just said you don't even know where you are! Now you're trying to tell me you think it's that way?"

"I didn't say I think, I said I had a feeling!"

"And where do you're feelings always get us? Hopelessly lost!"

"That's not true! They're pretty spot on sometimes!"

"Ohh sometimes! Do you really think that's supposed to make me listen to you and your feelings?"

As this continued on Roxas heard a noise, as if someone was trying to get his attention. He looked around curiously for a moment but saw nothing. He shrugged it off, figuring it must be his imagination. He heard it again though, this time louder, and his brows furrowed in confusion and irritation. It sounded like it was coming from the right. He looked over to the path on the right and noticed something pink and purple flicking out from behind a tree.

Was that a tail?

Roxas glanced over to the two boys, who were still arguing. This seemed like it would probably take a while, so he decided to go investigate. He watched Sora and Vanitas for a moment as he walked away, and when he was sure they didn't notice him he hurried over to the tree. When he got there he found that it was just a tail. Floating in the air. It was striped pink and purple and on the end was a little hoop piercing with a shiny metal cat head dangling on the hoop. His brows furrowed in confusion and he went to grab the tail, but it suddenly disappeared.

"What the hell?" He muttered in utter bewilderment.

"Hey cutie." A smooth, silky voice said from behind him. He felt fingers trailing up his arm and quickly spun around to face the person. His eyes widened to the size of saucers at the sight of the man before him. He had long fire truck red hair that was spiked back and on either side of his head stuck out dark pink cat ears that faded to purple at the tips and along the sides were three piercings on each ear. His eyes were an acid green with purple liner spiked on the ends. Under his eyes were two upside down tear drops. He wore a sleeveless jacket that came just below his butt. The front of the jacket was black and the back was striped with pink and purple. The third button of the jacket held it closed around his chest, but it opened around his stomach to show off his pale smooth flesh. Around the collar and bottom of the jacket was poofy purple fur and around his neck there loosely hung a thick dark red collar. Attached to the right of the red collar was a long metal chain that attached to his pants. His pants were pitch black jeans that sat low on his hips and hugged to his legs quite nicely. Just above the pants he had two more piercings on his hips and a hoop pierced in his belly button. For shoes he had nice black military boots with the laces untied and tucked into the boots. On both hands he wore black fingerless gloves with large rings attached to the tops with small chains hanging off and looping inside the gloves.

"You gonna stare at me all day kid?" The man asked with a seductive smirk.

"U-um... I'm sorry. I didn't mean too." Roxas said as a dark red blush spread across his face.

"It's okay. So what's your name cutie?" The red head purred, tilting Roxas's head up to look him in the eye.

"... Roxas." He said quietly. He honestly wasn't even sure he'd actually said it out loud until the red head repeated it, being sure to roll the r.

"I like it. My name's Axel. A-X-E-L. Got it memorized?" He said, circling the blonde then tapping a finger to his forehead.

"I guess so."

"So what's such a cute kid like you doin' hanging around with Tweedledee and Tweedledum?" Axel said, pointing a thumb in the direction of the two boys still arguing.

"They were taking me to see the hatter." Roxas explained. Axel made a face at that.

"Why are you going to see him? Especially when you can see a sexy kitty like me." Roxas chuckled and crossed his arms over his chest.

"I'm not exactly sure why I'm off to see the hatter. A man named Luxord told me to go speak with him."

"Leave it to that dumb rabbit to take away my fun." Axel pouted and placed his hands on his hips.

"Well, you're never gonna get there if you keep waiting on those two. They'll just argue until Sora gets his way. I'll lead you there."

"You will?" Roxas asked in surprise. Axel chuckled at the blonde's reaction and nodded.

"Of course! I get to spend more time with you that way don't I?" Axel asked, smirking at the blonde again. Roxas smiled and nodded.

"Indeed you will."

"And maybe after we visit the hatter," He trailed off, disappearing for a moment and reappearing behind Roxas. His mouth was right beside the blonde's ear when he spoke again. "I can take you back to my place and show you my new hand cuffs."

Roxas rolled his eyes but smiled at the comment.

"Maybe. If you're a good kitty." Roxas said seductively and started to walk down the path with dead trees. Axel grinned and growled at the boys retreating form, watching as his hips swayed back and forth. He could tell this kid was going to be a lot of fun.

* * *

**Ahh! I'm so excited about Axel's appearance in this chapter! He was going to be the hatter, but I'm sorry Yuki, I love him so much more as the cheshire cat! And oh my god, if I could see Axel in that outfit, I would die a very happy girl lol. I don't know what it is, but he just screams sex kitten to me XD**

**Penalty games. Really makes you wonder doesn't it? Lol**

**Anyways, I do hope you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you all on the next update! Goodnight, good morning, good afternoon and good evening! Much love to you all!**


	4. Curiouser and Curiouser

Roxas was walking through the dying forest, the beaten path having suddenly come to a stop a while back. Walking through this forest, Roxas found, hurt a lot more than the forest that was still alive. There had been lots of soft green grass in that forest. Now there was dead grass in random patches, twigs of various sizes and little pebbles that liked to stab into his feet. Axel was floating backwards right beside him, seemingly looking at his nails. He'd been pretty quiet thus far, which kind of surprised Roxas, seeing as he expected the red head to talk much more than this. Though it wasn't an uncomfortable silence.

"So Roxy," Axel started, breaking the long silence.

"Roxas." He corrected.

"That's what I said. Anyways, where you from?"

"Aldershot, England. And I suppose your from this place." Roxas said, looking around him at the dead trees and gray sky.

"Well, not from this exact area, but yes I am from Hearts. I do come around here often though. It so peaceful, don't you think?" Axel said, moving to float in front of Roxas.

"If you like dark and dreary then I suppose your correct." Axel suddenly disappeared again then reappeared behind Roxas.

"Do you like dark and dreary?" He whispered, close to the blonde's ear. Roxas could feel his hot breath against his neck as he spoke and a shiver ran down his spine, making his whole body tingle.

"I don't mind it so much. I do live in England after all, and I'm at the graveyard so often I practically live there." Roxas said with a small chuckle.

"So... Do you like graveyards then?" Axel swung around so he was now in front of Roxas. Roxas thought it over for a moment before shrugging and answering.

"I guess it's okay. I'm used to it by now, but I'd like it better if I didn't have to go there."

"Why go if you don't like it?"

"It kind of complicated, I'd rather not talk about it." He could tell Axel wanted to ask more about it, but he didn't, and Roxas was thankful to the red head for that.

"So, how old are you?" He asked after a moments silence.

"Seventeen. What about you?" Axel chuckled at this.

"Older than that. But not by much." Axel said with his wide grin. Roxas smirked and raised a brow to the cat like man.

"By how much?"

"Times six by two add fourteen then take away five. That's how old I am." Axel explained with a cheeky grin. Roxas furrowed his brows and pouted out his lips.

"Why do you have to make it complicated?"

"Well, can you figure it out?" He asked with a laugh. Roxas mulled it over for a moment, holding his chin in his hand as he thought. He never really liked math too much. He was a straight B student in that class, not even his teachers had been able to help. Now English, that was a class he liked and was good at. It was probably because he was so imaginative though. When he looked up again, he found Axel was still staring at him expectantly with an amused smile playing on his lips.

"Careful blondie, you don't want to blow a fuse." He teased.

"Shut up." Roxas said, pushing past Axel with a small pout as he tried not to smile.

"Aw don't be that way, I'm just teasing." Axel said as he appeared in front of the blonde again.

With a chuckle Roxas slipped past Axel and smiled cheekily over his shoulder. Axel stared at him with wide eyes for a moment then grinned.

"You're cute kid." He said with a chuckle. Roxas shrugged and continued to walk ahead of the man.

"I try." He said jokingly.

The two continued to walk in silence after that, getting lost in their thoughts once more. At first Roxas just wondered if his mother had even noticed his absence yet or if she ever would. Then he started thinking about this world and all the weird things he'd seen so far. He still didn't understand what that race was about, what could someone possibly do to deserve such a terrible punishment? Then there was the blonde with the rabbit ears. Why was he told to help him figure out the whole potion business? It kind of made him wonder if he was lead here on purpose. And he was kind of curious where the man was off to in such a hurry. And of course he couldn't forget Sora and Vanitas. Or the penalty game. He still hadn't been told what that was, and he was really starting to wonder at this point. Was it painful or just some kind of sick sex game? Did that mean Sora and Vanitas...? He didn't want to know. He didn't even want to think about that.

Then his thoughts turned to the red head. So far, the only thing that struck him as odd was the cat features and how he could vanish then reappear where he liked. He obviously used the vanishing to his advantage judging from how he kept coming up behind Roxas to speak right into his ear. He couldn't really complain though. From the way he dressed, it was as if he knew he was hot stuff. He probably did though. His whole aura screamed "sex kitten" to Roxas. Which he seemed to like insinuating the idea of having sex with the blonde. Roxas couldn't say for sure yet if that was something he'd want to do with the red head, after all, he'd just met him. He honestly wouldn't mind getting to know the cat like man better though.

Roxas sighed through his nose, running a hand through his hair and placing a hand on his hip. How much farther was this hatter's place? And was it just him, or was the forest getting bigger?

"You okay cutie?" Axel asked, looking at the blonde with a raised brow. Roxas glanced over to the older man.

"Yeah, it's just... Is this forest getting bigger or is that just me?" Roxas asked, looking around curiously. Axel chuckled then nodded.

"Yes, it's getting bigger. Remember, you shrank to come in here. Most things here are generally normal size, it's just that area where it's not. This is a good sign though, it means were close to the hatter's. I still don't know why you'd want to go see him though. Especially when you can spend more time getting to know me." Axel said, grinning mischievously. Roxas chuckled and shook his head at the man.

"You've just got your head in the clouds don't you?" Roxas asked with a smirk.

"Oh you'll be mine one of these days cutie." Axel said with a wink. "Just you wait and see."

* * *

Roxas looked around curiously. They had broken out of the forest at this point and were surrounded by tall blades of grass and random flowers of different varieties places around the ground.

"Don't be mad." Axel said suddenly. Roxas turned to look at the man with a confused and worried expression.

"Why?" He asked cautiously.

"We might be a bit lost." Axel said sheepishly, scratching the back of his head as a very light pink dusted over his cheeks. Roxas's eyes widened as he stared at the red head.

"God dammit! I thought you knew the way!" Roxas yelled.

"Hey, I never said I knew the way, I just said that it was down the right path way! I don't visit the hatter very often!"

"Son of a bitch!"

"Calm down kid! Just stay right here and I'll go find the right way. I promise it will only take a moment, I'll be back before you know it." And with that Axel disappeared, not even giving Roxas a chance to reply.

Roxas huffed and stomped his foot on the ground as he crossed his arms over his chest. He couldn't believe the man had gotten him lost. He'd thought that with the cat he would at least be in good hands and make his way there. But things just couldn't be that simple could they? Oh he was so ready to hit him.

Well, so long as he was here he could look around a bit right?

Roxas started to slowly walk through the tall grass, looking around curiously at his surroundings. So far there was nothing really interesting here besides how oddly tall the plant life in the area was. As he continued though, he heard faint voices in the distance. They sounded like they were singing, but with how quiet they were at the moment, Roxas couldn't be sure. He started to pick up the pace, moving random blades of grass out of his way when need be.

Finally, he came to a slightly large clearing, surrounded by flowers with three girls in the middle. One of them was a pretty blonde with her hair pulled over her right shoulder. She wore a short white strapless dress with flowers embroidered around the top. See through white fabric hung down from the embroidery in layers, creating a flower like effect. The girl to the right of her had reddish brown hair that came just to her shoulders. Her dress was a dark rosy red with a heart shaped top and the skirt split mid thigh, the fabric hanging just below her knees. The girl to the left appeared to be a bit older than the other two with short blue hair. She wore a dark blue strapless dress, the top wrinkled and just below her breasts was a thick black ribbon with a bow tied in the back. Over the blue skirt was a black mesh skirt with black flowers embroidered around the skirt and making their way towards the top.

Roxas noticed three things that all the girls had in common, they all had a flower in their hair, they each had blue eyes, and none of them wore shoes.

The red head was singing softly about flowers while the blonde and bluenette listened, swaying slightly back and forth to the music. When she finished the two girls clapped as she took a bow and thanked them for their praise. The bluenette was the only one to move from her place, walking over to the red head. She walked with such grace that it was as if she were performing the most elegant of dances. The two girls spoke excitedly as the blonde watched them, smiling softly. Her eye soon caught on Roxas though and she turned to look at him with wide, curious eyes.

"Oh my, look!" She said loudly, pointing to Roxas as she held her hand over her chest. "A new flower!"

Roxas looked around for a moment in confusion. Surely she didn't mean him did she?

The two girls looked over curiously at her excitement.

"Goodness, I believe you're right!" The red haired girl exclaimed. The girls all hurried over to Roxas, crowding around him.

"Oh, let us introduce ourselves! I am Geranium Aqua." The bluenette said, shaking his hand.

"I am Red Rose Kairi." The red head said with a small curtsie.

"And I'm White Lily Naminé." The blonde said.

"It's very nice to meet you all. I'm R-" Roxas said, only to be interrupted.

"My my, I've never seen such a peculiar looking flower! Do tell us, what is your name?" The blue haired girl said, looking him curiously up and down. Roxas furrowed his brows in confusion.

"But I'm not-"

"Oh! I bet he's a Tradescantia Andersoniana!" Naminé said excitedly, bouncing slightly in her place.

"No! He has to be a Salvia Guaranitica!" Kairi said, waving off the blonde's guess.

"Or what about a Scabiosa Causcasica?"

"Girls please! Let the boy speak!" Aqua said. The two girls immediately shut their mouths. Aqua smiled in appreciation then turned back to Roxas.

"Now, what is your name?" She asked. The other two girls were staring expectantly at Roxas. He couldn't help but feel uncomfortable under their gazes. He wasn't used to this much attention.

"Um... My name is Roxas." He said slowly.

"Oh not that name! Your flower name." Kairi said, getting slightly irritated.

"But I'm not a flower." The girls looked curiously at the blonde.

"Not a flower?" Naminé asked, tilting her head slightly to the side.

"Then what are you?" Kairi asked.

"I think I know what he is." Aqua said. She had her hand on her chin and looked as though she was thinking quite hard.

"What is he then Aqua?" The girls asked in union.

"I believe he is nothing more than a common mobile vulgaris!" Aqua said.

"Oh no!" Kairi gasped.

"But how could that be? He's so cute like a flower!" Naminé exclaimed.

"A common what?" Roxas asked in confusion.

"To put it bluntly, a weed." Aqua stated, turning away from the blonde.

A weed? Roxas was most certainly not a weed! And how dare she even say such a thing.

"I am not a weed!" Roxas shouted, stomping his foot on the ground.

"Well, you wouldn't expect him to admit it." Kairi said.

"We don't want weeds in our garden! Shoo, get out of here!" Aqua said, trying to motion Roxas out of the garden. Roxas stood there, staring at the bluenette as if she were a moron. Did she actually think that motioning for Roxas to leave was actually going to make him?

Suddenly, Kairi pushed him, causing him to stumble and fall back. Roxas was shocked for a moment, but quickly got up as he was filled with anger. Just as he was about to yell at her though, they heard a loud angry hiss and Axel suddenly appeared. He was down on all fours, his tail poofed out slightly as it flicked around and his ears laying flat against his head.

"The cat!" Aqua said in surprise.

"Oh no, not again!" Naminé shouted in fear.

"Run away!" Kairi said, running in the other direction of Axel. The other two girls were quick to follow her lead and scurry away, disappearing in the grass on the other side of the clearing.

"You okay, Roxy?" Axel asked still on all fours as he looked worriedly over his shoulder At the blonde.

"Roxas. And yeah, I'm fine. What was that all about?" Roxas asked, looking curiously at the older man. Axel got off the ground, brushing off his hands.

"What was what?"

"What was- oh never mind. Did you find the hatter's?" Roxas crossed his arms over his chest as he stared at the red head.

"Huh? Oh, yeah. We're close, just follow me." He said with his signature grin. He then started to lead Roxas back into the tall grass.

"Now, correct me if I'm wrong, but didn't I tell you to stay put?" Axel asked as he easily weaved through the grass.

"I guess. But I didn't go that far. And besides, it's boring waiting for you." Roxas said, moving the grass out of his way.

"Even so, I still think you should have waited for me."

"Oh whatever. How far is this place?"

"It shouldn't be much farther. But since you're walking, it might be a bit." Axel explained.

"Oh joy of joys." Roxas said sarcastically, making the red head laugh.

"Would you like me to carry you? I promise, I don't bite. Much." He asked with his grin. Roxas laughed and shook his head.

"Nah, I think I'm good. I'd rather not get molested today."

"I could molest you even if I wasn't carrying you. But you know..." He trailed off, disappearing and reappearing right in front of Roxas. He gasped quietly and stumbled back. Axel caught him before he could fall though. He wrapped his arm around the blonde's waist and pulled him in close, tilting his chin up with his finger. Roxas's breath hitched as the red head's face came just two inches from his own and his cheeks felt like they were on fire as he blushed a dark red.

"If you like it, it's not molestation." He said, smiling seductively with half lidded eyes. Roxas was frozen in place as he stared wide eyed at Axel. He had no clue what to do. Walk away? Laugh it off?

Push him? Yes. He should push him.

He placed his hands flat on the red head's chest and pushed him away. Not hard so he'd stumble back. Just firm enough so that he was at arms length away from the blonde. Axel pouted slightly at this action, but with a sigh he apologized and continued to lead the blonde in the direction of the hatter's place.

* * *

Roxas looked up curiously as he notice the sky getting dark and making it harder to see where he was going.

"Are we almost there?" He asked, still staring at the sky. Axel nodded, even though he knew Roxas wasn't looking at him.

"Yeah, we should be there pretty soon."

"It got dark kind of fast. Why is that?" Roxas asked, looking questioningly at Axel.

"The red queen cast a spell over the hatter as punishment. It's always six 'o clock there. Or rather..." He trailed off for a moment as they continued through the grass and came to a clearing. In the middle of the clearing was a large table, surrounded by a bunch of chairs of varying sizes and designs. To the left of the table was a small house then starting next to the house and going around to the right side of the table was large dying bushes with Christmas lights wrapped around them. At the table sat three men, one of them was laying his head on the table, appearing to be asleep, as another man was talking, holding a tea cup upside down over his head, looking inside. The last man, who was sitting at the head of the table was pouring himself a cup of tea.

"Tea time." Axel finished, crossing his arms and staring at the scene before him.

* * *

**And another chapter is done! I hope you enjoyed and much love to all you readers! Goodnight, good morning, good afternoon and good evening! See ya!**


	5. What Bloody Nonsense!

The man at the head of the table wore a rather nice suit. A white blazer with long coat tails, beneath that was a blood red vest and a black button up shirt. On his hands he wore black fingerless gloves that cut off at the wrist. They were the only thing he wore that actually looked old. For pants he wore black slacks and large dark brown leather combat boots were on his feet with the pant legs tucked in. His hair was silver, coming to his shoulders in length, and his bangs hanging down over his aqua green eyes. He wore a rather nice white top hat on his head, with black silk fabric wrapped around the bottom. A card stuck out of the fabric, it had the queen of hearts, but a sword was plunged into her chest.

The man looking into his tea cup wore a midnight blue button up with the sleeves rilled up to his elbows and a dark gray vest over the shirt. His slacks were a dark brown and on his feet he wore no shoes, apparently taking to walking around with them bare. His hair was a dirty blonde styled up on the top as the back hung down, making a mullet style. Out of his hair popped out two scruffy looking rabbit ears that were the same color a his hair and his eyes were a dark oceanic blue.

The one sleeping on the table, Roxas couldn't really see all of him, but he wore a black trench coat with a black leather jacket hanging around his shoulders. He wore black slacks with that and nice black leather dress shoes. His hair was a slate color, cut short in the back and his bangs were long enough to cover his face from view, and the majority of them were pushed to the right side of his face. On the top of his head were two large gray mouse ears.

"Axel. To what do I owe this... pleasure?" The silverette said, not even glancing at them as they approached the table. He just seemed to know they were there without seeing them.

"Just an escort to a lost little boy." Axel said, grinning and patting the blonde on the head. Roxas quickly swatted away the offending hand and shot a glare at the red head.

"I see. And who might this be?" He said, finally turning his gaze upon them. Some how, it gave Roxas chills. Not the good kind though, but rather the kind you get when something creeps you out.

"This is Roxy."

"_Roxas._" He quickly corrected, only to get waved off as Axel continued to speak.

"He's from above. Says Lux lead him down here then told him to come see you." Axel suddenly disappeared from beside Roxas and reappeared by the man, suddenly the same size as him.

"You wouldn't happen to know anything about this would you, Riku?" Axel asked, looking suspiciously at the newly named Riku.

"I would as a matter of fact. It's a plot against the red queen." Riku said as he nonchalantly took a sip of his tea.

"How could he possibly help? He isn't even-"

"Change places!" The rabbit eared boy yelled suddenly, interrupting Axel as he quickly stood from his seat, Riku following suit. They quickly moved down the table till Riku sat beside the sleeping mouse and the rabbit sat at the head of the table. He grinned widely as he crossed his legs and stuck his pinky out as he pretended to be a proper gentleman. Axel sighed, disappearing and reappearing again so he was by Riku.

"Anyways, how is he supposed to help?" Axel asked.

"We have to go speak with Vexen." He paused to take a sip of his tea. "He will know what to do."

"Oh god, why Vexen?" Axel growled out, a light hiss escaping his mouth.

"Oh, shush. He may not be the most pleasant man, but he's not that bad." Riku said, looking a bit irritated about having this conversation. Before Axel could respond Roxas tugged on his chain to get his attention. Axel looked down curiously to see a pissed off looking Roxas cross his arms over his chest and tap his foot impatiently.

"Oh, sorry." Axel paused to pick up the small form and place him on the table. "Make him big alright?"

"Don't!" The mouse said, startling Roxas as he suddenly woke up and making Riku stop mid reach for the cookie jar. His eye was a startling deep blue and under his eye was a dark circle. His button up was a dark blood red and he wore a black tie, tucked inside his black vest. In the pocket of his vest was red handkerchief with the letters DM embroidered on it.

"Zexion's awake!" The rabbit cheered as he hopped out of his seat to jump on said man.

"Not now Demyx!" He hissed, making the blonde's shoulders droop as he suddenly became very sad. Zexion gave him an apologetic look, seeming to make a silent promise to the blonde as he suddenly perked up and resumed his seat at the head of the table.

"Wait, what's going on?" Axel asked curiously.

"Smell the air nimrod, your a cat." The mouse snapped, shooting a glare at Axel. He then turned his gaze onto the forest before him.

"Troops. Six of them." His expression suddenly turned grim. "And the Knave of Hearts."

Riku quickly stood from his chair.

"Axel, you need to hurry up and run." Riku said, turning his head to look Axel directly in the eye. "If they get Roxas we're done for."

Axel stared at him for a moment, letting everything sink in, then he suddenly disappeared. When he reappeared he was on the table, but he was no longer human, he was a cat. Roxas only knew it was him because of the pink and purple fur and the red collar around his neck with a chain dangling off. He wasn't a very large cat. Normal sized for sure, but just as his human body was skinny, so was his feline body. It wasn't exactly the healthy weight a cat should be, but it didn't look like the body of a starving cat either.

"Climb on." Axel said, looking at Roxas with his piercing green eyes. Roxas stared at him for a moment before Riku grew impatient and placed him on Axel's fluffy back.

"Hold on tight Roxy." Axel said, looking over his shoulder at the blonde with a grin pulling back his feline features.

"Roxas." He corrected sharply as he grabbed onto the collar. Axel ignored him as he burst into a sprint, running off the table and into the near by bushes.

"Where are we going?" Roxas asked after a couple minutes of silence. Axel glanced back at Roxas for a moment.

"Well, we're sure as hell not going to see Vexen!" Axel growled. Roxas's brows furrowed.

"That doesn't answer my question." Axel sighed, and Roxas was sure that if he were in human form he would be running his long fingers through his fiery red hair.

"We'll go see the queen. She'll probably have a better idea than Vexen."

Roxas slowly raised a brow then leaned forward slightly to better see Axel's face.

"Wait, the queen? But I thought she was bad?" Roxas inquired.

"What? No, that's the red queen. See we have two queens. The red queen and the white queen."

Roxas was so lost. What the hell was going on here? He didn't really expect this place to ever make much sense to him, but seriously, why did they have two queens? Besides, so far it seemed the red queen was the one in charge.

"I don't understand." He said embarrassedly. He wished he could follow all of this a bit better, but nothing really seemed to make sense to him.

Axel sighed as he started to slow down to a quick trot.

"Okay, listen up cause I'm only going to say this once. This is Hearts. It was once ruled over by the white queen, but the red queen believed she didn't deserve to rule since because she was so young. So she started plotting with this man named Xemnas, and they worked together to over throw the white queen, thus making them the king and queen of hearts. Then one day Saix, Xemnas' favorite, he disobeyed an order from the queen because Xemnas told him to. Saix was to be put to death for his transgression, but Xemnas wouldn't allow it. That was the first and last death he objected to. The queen had Xemnas take Saix's place and put the king to death instead. She started giving out many more punishments after that. Cursing Xaldin, Demyx, Riku and Xigbar... Killing Terra..." Axel explained slowing to a stop at the end of his tale.

"Who's Terra?" Roxas asked cautiously, noticing that it was obviously a sore spot.

"He was the white knight, and the only hope we had of ever over throwing the red queen." Axel said, a grim expression over coming his cat face.

Roxas was silent for a moment, staring down at the soft pink and purple fur beneath him.

"Come on. We should keep going, just incase they're following us." Roxas said, breaking the short silence. Axel looked over his shoulder with his signature grin.

"Aw, you don't like being alone with me Roxy?" He teased half heartedly.

"No. And my name is Roxas." Roxas deadpanned, making his smirk faulter.

"Aw why not?" He whinnied, ignoring the blonde's correction.

"Cause I have this sneaking feeling that your going to try to rape me." Roxas said with a small smirk.

"That's hurtful, Roxy. Real hurtful." He pouted as he started to run through the forest again. Roxas sighed and moved so his chest was pressed against Axel's soft neck and he nuzzled his cheek against the back of his head. Axel glanced back at the movement, but didn't object.

"I just want you to know, your bare ass is the one riding on my back." Axel pointed out with a cheeky grin. Roxas' half lidded eyes widened as he remembered he was only wearing Luxord's jacket. A dark blush quickly covered his cheeks and he hid his face in the soft fur.

"Don't remind me." He whinnied, voice muffled by the fur. Axel chuckled at the blonde's reaction, but said nothing more on the subject.

* * *

After some time of running through the dead trees of the forest the two finally came to a clearing with a brick path way. Roxas looked oddly at the path. It seemed so out of place. It was basically a dead end seeing as it lead to the forest. And they hadn't been following a path in the forest when they broke free.

Axel just continued down the path, picking up speed as he knew they were close. Soon enough Roxas could see a large white mansion in the distance. From what he could see it was surrounded by white trees, oddly live rather than the dead ones of the surrounding forest. As they got closer he could see the more intricate details of the mansion. The whole thing was made of stone and there was three stone archways in front of the large doors. He quickly found that the leaves of the trees weren't leaves at all, but rather small white flowers. The petals of said flowers slowly fell from the trees and floated through the air like snow.

"So that's where the white queen is?" Roxas asked as they ran through the falling petals.

"Yup. You'll meet her soon enough." Axel said, seeming more concentrated on where he was going rather than Roxas. It didn't really bother him that Axel's attention wasn't on him, it just seemed a bit odd. So far since he'd met the feline, it seemed like ninety eight percent of his attention had been focused on him, what with all the flirting and sexual innuendos, plus he seemed to enjoy sneaking little touches, so it was odd now that he hadn't been so out of it. He'd barely even talked the entire journey to the mansion.

"Are you okay?" Roxas asked, biting his lip and looking a bit worriedly at the cat. Axel glanced back then slowly nodded.

"I'm good. Just a bit worried..." He said, turning his gaze on the forest. "Riku and I might not seem like the best of friends, but that's really not the case. Riku may be a twat sometimes, but he's really one of the only people I like in this god forsaken hell hole. The other two being Demyx and Zexion of course just makes this all the more worse."

Axel shook his head and blinked a couple times. "Sorry, didn't mean to be a total sap." He chuckled.

Roxas looked sadly at the cat. After a moment he grabbed the black collar and tugged on it hard enough to make Axel stop. He coughed a couple times then turned his head to glare at Roxas.

"What the hell, Roxas?!"

The blonde said nothing as he swung his leg over his back and slid down the fur so he was no longer on the feline. Axel watched him curiously for a moment.

"What are you doing?" He asked when the blonde landed on the ground.

"I can get there by myself from here." Roxas said, slowly turning to look at the cat with a soft smile. "You go check on your friends."

Axel blinked a couple of times in surprise. After a moments thought he finally responded.

"I can't just leave you Roxas, now come on." He paused as he crouched low to the ground. "Get back on."

"I'm perfectly capable of walking on my own Axel. And I don't need an escort any more. I can see the mansion from here. Now go!" Roxas said, stomping his foot on the ground and pointing back at the dead forest. Axel looked worriedly at the forest then back to Roxas.

"Are you sure?" He asked cautiously. Roxas nodded once, then with a sigh and a sad look at the blonde, he disappeared. Roxas let out a sigh of his own and went to continue on his way when he suddenly felt two thin, but muscular arms wrap around his shoulders.

"Thanks Roxy." Roxas touched his hand to one of the arms, but almost as soon as he touched it, it disappeared, and Axel was gone. Roxas was all alone again. He sighed once more and stared at the ground for a moment. He then turned his gaze upwards once more, determination on his features as he looked at the mansion and started the long trek towards the massive structure.

* * *

Okay, Roxas would admit, he was missing that sex kitten big time. He'd been walking at least a half hour, and though his bare feet were now killing him, that's not even why he missed Axel. Within ten minutes of the cat being gone he started to realize just how eerily quiet everything was. But more than that, how creepy this place seemed. The mansion some how looked darker, and though he wasn't sure if the sun was out before hand, he found himself staring at the dark clouds above that made everything beneath dim and lifeless. Maybe it was just his mind playing tricks on him. Yeah, that had to be it. He just wasn't thinking properly. All of this was completely normal.

_Rustle._

What the fuck was that? He stopped walking, listening closely. After a waiting for about three minutes and hearing nothing, he started to walk again. His mind was definitely playing tricks on him.

_Rustle, rustle._

He jumped when he heard the sound again and looked around curiously. What the fuck was doing that?

After a moment longer the sound persisted. Roxas stopped completely as he tried to look around for the source. Suddenly, out of the bushes, fell a disoriented Sora and a completely calm Vanitas walking out after him. Roxas sighed in relief at the sight of them.

"Hey, there you are!" Sora said, looking up at Roxas from the ground before hopping to his feet.

"We thought a hawk carried you away!" He said as he ran over to the blonde.

"No Sora, _you_ thought a hawk carried him away. I said he probably walked away cause of your stupidity." Vanitas said, crossing his arms over his chest.

"You're both wrong." Roxas deadpanned. Vanitas resolved to just glaring at him.

"It was just a thought! Jeez." Sora said, pouting. He suddenly perked up though as he turned back to Roxas. "So what did happen to you?"

"I saw a cats tail, so I went to check it out and-"

"You met Axel." Vanitas finished. He looked none too happy about the information.

"Uh... Yeah." He didn't need to ask how he knew. He'd already figured out long ago that everyone here knew each other.

"Why do you say it like that Vanitas?" Sora asked, looking worriedly at his brother.

"Nevermind it Sora. So where's the fleabag now? Did he just ditch you in the middle of no where?" Roxas sent a deathly glare at the raven, and Vanitas, not really affected by it, narrowed his eyes at the blonde.

"His name is Axel. And he didn't ditch me. I told him to go. He should be back soon." Roxas hissed.

"What, was he getting on your nerves? He tends to do that." Vanitas sneered.

"No. And it's none of your fucking business, so screw off." And with that, Roxas turned on his heel and stomped away from the twins. Of course things couldn't be that easy though as Sora quickly followed after him.

"Hey, don't mind Vanitas. He doesn't really like anyone! He barely tolerates me, and that's only because I'm his brother." Sora explained, smiling sheepishly at the blonde.

"Are you going to follow me the whole way?" Roxas snapped. He didn't mean to, he was just mad, and normally he had a hard time controlling that.

"I-I don't have to. I can leave if you'll like." Sora said. Roxas sighed and ran a hand through his hair.

"I don't care if you do. It's someone else that I have a problem with."

"He'll play nice! I promise!" Sora chirped.

"I'd prefer it if he was gone." Roxas muttered, kicking a random stone with his bare foot.

"What was that?" Sora asked curiously.

"Nothing. So what happened to you?" Roxas resolved to just ignoring the other presence and continue his walk. Things should be more peaceful that way. He wasn't ashamed to admit he'd punched several of his classmates when pissed off, but he had a feeling it wouldn't do him much good here.

"Oh, we took the left path and got even more lost. Ended up at Luxord's house. Lexaeus had to give us directions to the hatters, but once the path cut off we got lost again. Then we ended up in the garden, but Kairi was the only one there. Said she was waiting for Aqua and Namine to get back. Then we got lost again and now we're here!" Roxas scowled at the mention of the garden, but said nothing on the subject.

"Sounds like a blast." He said, not sounding very enthusiastic. Sora ignored the tone, or maybe he was just oblivious to it, but frowned as he responded.

"Not really. Vanitas kept hitting me and threatening me with penalty games when we got home." Sora pouted. Roxas glared briefly at the raven behind them then continued to talk to Sora.

"Anyways, did you ever make it to the hatter?" Sora asked.

"Yeah, Axel brought me there. We didn't get to stay for very long though. The mouse guy uh... Zexion. He said there was some troops and the Knave heading for the hatters so Axel and I left." Roxas explained. Sora's eyes widened in horror and he placed a hand over his mouth.

"The Knave of Hearts?" He asked quietly. Roxas could see the tears welling in the brunette's eyes as he slowly nodded in conformation. He gasped then quickly turned around and started to run. Vanitas quickly grabbed him to stop him.

"Let me go Vanitas!" Sora yelled as he struggled to get out of his brother's firm grip. Tears were streaming down his cheeks in long lines.

"Let me go! I need to go see him!" Sora yelled again.

"I can't do that Sora." Vanitas said. Sora seemed to turn on him at this point.

"Fuck you! Let me go god dammit, let me the fuck go! I have to go fucking see him, fuck off!" Sora screamed as he started to lash out at Vanitas, trying to hit him while still trying to pull out of his grasp. It was frightening to say the least. He hadn't known him for very long, but even he knew Sora was your every day, happy go lucky kind of person. The type you couldn't ever imagine doing something like this. Then again, even the happiest of people snapped when pushed too far right?

"Fuck you, fuck you, fuck you!" Sora screamed, finally getting one hand out of Vanitas' grip long enough to hit him in the face.

You know how they say if you ever want to know how someone's feeling just look into their eyes? Well Roxas was looking at Vanitas', and to be perfectly honest, he looked like he was in complete anguish. It was like his heart had shattered in his chest as he looked at his brother. Some how, he actually managed to keep his face completely emotionless.

"Please let me go. Please." Sora whimpered as all rage suddenly left him and he became a blubbering mess.

"No need Sora." A familiar voice said, but as Roxas looked around for the man, he quickly found he was no where to be seen. Suddenly though, Axel appeared beside Roxas.

"Axel! What happened?" Roxas asked as Sora looked over curiously. Axel was silent for a moment as he turned his eyes to the brick path. He took a deep breath and sighed before he answered.

"They arrested Riku." Axel said. Sora's eyes grew wide and he stared at Axel in bewilderment before everything seemed to process. He collapsed to the ground, burying his face in his hands. Sobs wracked his body as he shook uncontrollably.

"No no no. This can't be happening." Sora whimpered. "Why did she take him? Why?"

"I wish I knew. When I got there, they were taking him away. Demyx was gone and Zexion wouldn't tell me anything." Axel said, just barely loud enough for Sora to hear. He said nothing more, just sat there and cried. And they all watched for a moment until Vanitas finally decided to try and console him.

"Sora, it will be alri-"

"No it won't!" He snapped, cutting off his brother. He looked up angrily at the raven, and for a moment, Roxas feared he might attack him again. "It's not going to be okay! Don't you see Vanitas?! She's going to kill him this time!"

Sora paused and lowered his head again.

"She's going to kill him." He whimpered out. Roxas balled his hands into fists. He couldn't stand this. Hearing about all these dreadful punishments, wrongfully placed on the poor inhabitants of this world, about how this so called queen killed the only person actually on her side. And now seeing Sora have a complete break down. Though the times were strange in this world, he was sure he'd been here for at least a day, and from everything he'd seen in just a day, he was fed up. He quickly turned on his heel and started making his way towards the mansion once more.

"Roxas? Where are you going?" Axel asked curiously as he quickly followed the boy.

"To save Riku and put an end to all of this." He said.

"Really?" He heard Sora's quiet voice. He paused and looked over his shoulder at the brunette.

"Really." Sora's eyes lit up at that single word.

"And how exactly do you intend to do that?" Axel asked, crossing his arms over his chest. Sora's expression dropped for a moment and he turned his gaze back to the ground, but just before Roxas could respond, Sora got to his feet.

"He can do it. He may not know how just yet, but he'll figure it out." Sora said then slowly walked over to the blonde.

"And I'll be there every step of the way to help you." He smiled, and Roxas found it quite infectious as he returned it. Just, maybe not with as much enthusiasm.

"Yeah, you got it." Roxas agreed.

"Now, let's go save Riku!" Sora cheered, only to be hit on the head by Vanitas.

"And the rest of Hearts doofus." Vanitas said, placing his hands on his hips.

"Well yeah, but I'm more excited about Riku!" Sora said as he moved past Roxas and started to lead the way to the mansion. Vanitas followed after him, mostly to argue with the brunette over Riku.

"You're sure you can do this?" Axel asked, looking worriedly at the blonde. Roxas glanced at the red head beside him then looked back to Sora.

"Yeah. Like Sora said, I might not know what to do yet, but I'll figure it out. Plus," he paused and turned his eyes back to Axel. "I'll have you to help me every step of the way."

Axel chuckled, shaking his head and running his fingers through his hair.

"I'm not so sure I'm the best person to have by your side through this." Axel said. Roxas bit the inside of his lip as he pursed his mouth.

"I can't think of anyone else I'd rather have beside me through this all." Roxas said. Axel blinked a couple times in surprise, then slowly a smile slid onto his face. And not his grin or a smirk, but a genuine smile. It took his breath away.

All too soon though, Axel disappeared for a moment, then came back in his cat form before the blonde. He was crouched low to the ground and looking at Roxas.

"Climb on." He said, some how still managing to smile as a cat. Roxas grinned then hurried to climb up, straddling his back and holding tightly to his collar. Soon enough, Axel bolted down the path, right past the still bickering brothers and towards the white mansion that lay ahead.

* * *

**Ahh you held up your end of the deal sweet cheeks, so I'll hold up mine ;) This should brighten your morning, and I wish you much luck for you know what (since I'll most likely just be waking up as it starts) I expect a full report when You get back mister!**

**anyways, hope everyone else enjoyed this update, and I will try to get up the next ASAP! Much love to you all, and see you next update! **


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